Archive for the ‘health care’ tag
Declining empire watch: health care lottery, military-style drones in NYC, rape culture
Listen to the new episode of Citizen Radio and subscribe to the free podcast.
Allison and Jamie discuss the declining empire, including a health care lottery in Tennessee, military-style drones in NYC, and rape culture.
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Supreme Court rules mandate constitutional, JPMorgan trading loss may reach $9 Billion
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Supreme Court rules the individual mandate constitutional, Jamie and Allison dissect the ACA, the right freaks out, the largest city in the U.S. files for bankruptcy, Aaron Sorkin is a dick, and so is Jamie Dimon.
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Scalia horrifies court with SB1070 comments, debt collectors at hospitals
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Allison and Jamie discuss Justice Scalia’s horrifying comments during the SB1070 hearing, debt collectors at hospitals, Obama Justice and medical marijuana,CISPA, and Rupert Murdoch updates.
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Citizen Radio is a member-supported show. Visit http://wearecitizenradio.com to sign up and support media that won’t lead you to war, and to keep CR Productions growing!
Supreme Court circus, worker solidarity in Occupy Wall Street, cat talk
Listen to the new episode of Citizen Radio and subscribe to the free podcast.
Allison and Jamie discuss SCOTUS’ handling of the Affordable Care Act debate, worker solidarity in Occupy Wall Street, CAT TALK, and the creepy US policy of ordering UK carriers to extend no-fly list of Brits travelling to non-US destinations, even on flights that don’t pass through US airspace.
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Citizen Radio is a member-supported show. Visit http://wearecitizenradio.com to sign up and support media that won’t lead you to war, and to keep CR Productions growing!
Fox News boss instructed staff not to use phrase ‘public option’ because it tested too well
Media Matters has posted a very interesting report that once again illustrates just how laughable the Fox News slogan “Fair and Balanced” really is. It seems the network’s Washington managing editor, Bill Sammon, sent around a memo instructing his staff not to the use the phrase “public option” because it was testing too well.
Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox’s reporters should use “government option” and similar phrases — wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats’ reform efforts.
Journalists on the network’s flagship news program, Special Report with Bret Baier, appear to have followed Sammon’s directive in reporting on health care reform that evening.
Sources familiar with the situation in Fox’s Washington bureau have told Media Matters that Sammon uses his position as managing editor to “slant” Fox’s supposedly neutral news coverage to the right. Sammon’s “government option” email is the clearest evidence yet that Sammon is aggressively pushing Fox’s reporting to the right — in this case by issuing written orders to his staff.
Go read the whole report. It’s really very interesting – if not very surprising for those of us who have been casual viewers of Fox News for the past decade, or so. This kind of leak is helpful, however, because it provides empirical evidence straight from the Conservative horse’s mouth.
The report also confirms the popularity of the public option, and how it’s widespread positive polling had Conservatives running scared. Republican pollster Frank Luntz actually scolded Sean Hannity for using the term “public option.” He ordered Hannity to instead call it the “government option.”
Luntz argued that “if you call it a ‘public option,’ the American people are split,” but that “if you call it the ‘government option,’ the public is overwhelmingly against it.” Luntz explained that the program would be “sponsored by the government” and falsely claimed that it would also be “paid for by the government.”
“You know what,” Hannity replied, “it’s a great point, and from now on, I’m going to call it the government option.”
Of course, because Obama chose not to fight for the public option, Conservatives have since been able to frame the narrative as the public having “rejected” the public option. That simply isn’t the case. In fact, poll after poll after poll showed that a majority of the American people supported including a public option in the final health care bill.
That’s the danger of having a propaganda network like Fox News. This memo shows how the staff works to shape a Conservative narrative that they package as “What The American People Think.” Then Conservatives on the hill nod to Fox News as evidence that a Conservative agenda is What The American People Want, and that of course bolsters the whole fictional “America is a center-right country” bullshit fantasy Pat Buchanan jerks off to every evening.
Here’s a little mental exercise you can play at home: Imagine if Fox News got a hold of an MSNBC memo like this in which a network head was instructing his staff to refer to the Deficit Commission as the “Catfood Commission.” Can you imagine how fast Neil Cavuto or Megyn Kelly would rupture a lung screaming about the “liberal agenda?”
Vengeful dining room table runs for Congress
Remember that crazy woman that accused Obama of being Hitler during last summer’s town hall? Well, she’s running for Congress. I wrote about it over at Global Comment.
New Citizen Radio: Alan Grayson, Marcy Wheeler, and W. Kamau Bell
Rep. Alan Grayson
Marcy Wheeler
Listen to the interviews here.
Citizen Radio interviews Congressman Alan Grayson about standing up to Republicans (including describing the GOP healthcare plan as “Don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly,”) Wall Street, party opposition – even from his fellow Democrats, and what makes him happy.
Next, blogger Marcy Wheeler AKA Emptywheel talks about the
role of bloggers, and her groundbreaking article on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that forced the establishment press to acknowledge the important roles bloggers can play in journalism.
Marcy, along with many other excellent bloggers, writes at Firedoglake, so check out that site.
Comic W. Kamau Bell
W. Kamau Bell returns with his segment “I’m Sorry, Black People” in which he highlights yet another injustice inflicted upon black people. This week’s subject is Shirley Sherrod.
Citizen Radio airs every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Breakthru Radio. Subscribe to the show’s FREE podcast at wearecitizenradio.com. Join us on Facebook.
Thousands queue for free healthcare (again)
AUGUST 11: Remote Area Medical (RAM), founder Stan Brock calls patients on a bullhorn into the Forum arena at a free health clinic on August 11, 2009 in Inglewood, California. Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Washington has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to cope with more than one big issue at a time. As a result, the broken healthcare system is in danger of slipping off the radar even though millions of Americans still suffer the terrible fate of the un- and underinsured.
Lindsey Graham demonstrated the epic freakout disguised as political calculation that has become the standard response of politicians asked to cope with more than one issue at a time. Climate change and immigration? Cut to: Little Lindsey, storming home with his Tonka truck.
In the midst of the meshugas surrounding Arizona’s fascist anti-immigration bill, and the teabagger rallies, healthcare reform is already being depicted as a done deal – something that is part of the nation’s collective past. Yet, the reform was never presented as an instant panacea to Americans’ suffering. Most of the major reform won’t kick in until 2014, and in the meantime, the masses continue to suffer.
A free health clinic opened its doors today to thousands of patients clamoring for dental, vision and medical care.
The Los Angeles Sports Arena has been transformed into a health clinic that will run through May 3, with its floor lined with more than 100 dentist chairs and 40 medical examination areas to treat patients.
Patients registered in advance to see doctors at the event, which is being run by the Tennessee-based nonprofit group Remote Area Medical. The clinic expects to serve about 1,200 patients a day.
Anti-government radicalism discourages essential regulations
Image by Getty Images North America via Daylife
It’s been a few weeks since I last documented the systemic violence and threats that have become the hallmarks of right-wing extremism, so I figured it was time for an update.
First up, we have the Hutaree Christian terrorist organization, a fiercely militant group (including children) who wore fatigues and carried high-powered assault rifles at all times — even during family weddings.
The militia’s leader, David Brian Stone, asked an undercover federal agent to provide explosives to be used against police officers. The plan was to then attack an officer’s funeral using homemade bombs in the hopes of killing even more law enforcement personnel. Hutaree is only one of many such “patriot” movements that desire to “take back their country”.
Then there’s Gregory Lee Giusti, the man arrested for making dozens of harassing phone calls to Nancy Pelosi. (He was reportedly angry over her role in passing healthcare reform). Gregory’s mom blames Fox.
Healthcare was not the 'best-covered news story, ever'
Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr
Harold Pollack went out on a limb, and unfortunately fell off the edge, when he suggested that healthcare reform was the “best-covered news story, ever.” Not even Pollack himself seems to really believe that premise as he peppers caveats throughout the article, and ultimately cites a few genuine examples of good journalism that occurred during healthcare reform. Ultimately, however, Pollack only manages to convince that citizens may have been able to hunt down some good nuggets of genuine journalism…if they knew where to look…which most citizens didn’t.
Right out the gate, Pollack attempts to amend his thesis.
It’s certainly easy to find examples of shoddy journalism and public ignorance to bolster this charge. Every night, one could watch cable TV screamers trafficking in untruths about death panels, or commentators offering with certitude political predictions that (a) were generally wrong and (b) generally detracted from discussing the actual substance of a hugely important piece of legislation.
Pollack cites the Wall Street Journal (circulation 2 million), Fox News (the highest rated basic cable channel in primetime), and Investor’s Business Daily (circulation 210,000) as a few examples of the “bad journalism” which peddled the worst kinds of healthcare miseducation nonsense. He’s absolutely correct that these forums engaged in shoddy journalism, but their low-quality gutter-dredging techniques successfully brainwashed millions of readers and viewers. That’s a big “FAIL” for the state of journalism right there. The worst journalmalism reached the most people.
